progress report

I finished the first book which is for the new HSK 1 exam.  I did the mock test in the back and got 100% of the problems correct.  I have started on the second book which is for the level 2 test of HSK. This book is much thicker than the first, but it seems to have just used more pages on testing.

The HSK books are in Japanese, but I'm not bothering to read much of the explanations in Japanese when I already understand the Chinese example sentences. I basically just copy all of the Chinese words and sentences and then listen to the audio, and then I do the test at the end of each lesson.

This series is kind of bad, in the way it uses words in examples that it has not yet introduced. First, it has a list of words at the beginning of the lesson. But it also has a supplementary list of words at the end of the lesson. These words are then used in the testing section which appears right afterwards. So there's no real chance to learn the words or get used to them before you are tested.  Hopefully no users of these books are only learning Chinese from just these books. Although, both the first book and the second book started out with lessons on pronunciation, which I skipped.

strengthen your neural connections

Lately, I have been strengthening my neural connections, and it feels good.  I'd like to tell you what I've been up to lately.

an order of magnitude (HSK)

I ordered the following 3 books from amazon.co.jp yesterday. They will be arriving tomorrow.

   

These are for the HSK test levels 1 & 2. Those are the lowest two levels. I bought one text for level 1 and one text for level 2. The third book is a collection of 5 previous tests of level 2. Both of the the textbooks have a mock test at the end of the book.

In case you are unable to tell, the books are written in Japanese.  Each book has a CD as well.

The level 1 test requires knowledge of only 150 words.  The level 2 test adds another 150 words for a grand total of 300 words!

new year revolutions

This year (2012), I didn't accomplish much in the way of achievements.  I have no achievements to brag about.  I didn't watch much Chinese TV.  I didn't take any language tests.  I did, however, start a new job where I am working in an English bubble.  I used to work in a Japanese office.  Yes, I am still in Japan, but now I work where there are very few Japanese people and English is pretty much the only language spoken.

But for 2013, I have a number of things I want to accomplish and so it's going to be a year of revolutions.

First of all, I am studying for some more Oracle database certification exams.  I'm going to take two exams and I'm going to take them in Japanese.  I did this before when I got certified on Oracle PL/SQL.  I don't have to take them in Japanese.  I could go to the testing center and take the English version of the tests.  I choose to take them in Japanese.  I have already bought a study book for the first exam and have read more than half of it.  After I pass those two exams, then I'm going to study for and take the Java programmer certification exam.  I'll do that in Japanese as well.

After I finish those exams in Japanese, I will continue to study in Japanese.  I want to pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1 exam in December 2013.  For that, I need to do a lot of reading of articles of the type that will appear on the exam.  Reading comprehension is very important for the exam.

At the same time, I would like to take my Chinese to the next level.  By the end of the year, I would like to be able to hold a conversation in Chinese without too much trouble.  For that, I am going back to Assimil Chinese with Ease to make sure I know every word and phrase in the course.  I am also going to write out every lesson so that I will be sure to reinforce some of the words that are not used very often in the course as well as be able to read and hopefully write Chinese characters.

I am not too worried about any of the usual hiccups that come with using textbook lessons since I have already spent a lot of time with Chinese.  I seem to already have acquired pretty good pronunciation and I know I'm at a point where I can really take off.  Either before or after I finish Assimil, I will practice speaking by engaging in some conversations.  That will allow me to gauge where I am at with the language. To date, I have only spent 6.8 hours speaking Chinese, and only once this year.  This year, I watched Chinese TV dramas for about 140 hours.  I will try to watch some next year too, but I have not set any target hours.

I will be really excited when I can carry on a conversation in Chinese well.

Good luck to everybody in 2013!